Inside Scoop: Ice Cream Far From Dieter's Dream

June 17, 2001|By Mitch Lipka Consumer Writer

At Weight Watchers meetings from Florida to Virginia, rooms frequently become abuzz with talk of "Big Daddy" ice cream.

Internet chat rooms and bulletin boards share the secret of this tasty, guilt-free treat made by DeConna Ice Cream Co. in Orange Lake, which has been selling briskly in several major grocery store chains. In a world in which counting calories and fat is a way of life, the nutritional label on the product is a dieter's dream.

Vanilla Big Daddy, according to the label, has 100 calories and 2 grams of fat for a 12-ounce serving -- a mere 2 points for Weight Watchers devotees, about the same as an apple.

But lab tests commissioned by the Sun-Sentinel could explain why calorie and carbohydrate-watchers who nosh on the supposedly light delight might not be losing weight.

The tests showed the calories are triple what is touted on the label and the carbohydrates are more than double -- an understatement of 200 calories, 5.5 grams of fat and 31 grams of carbohydrates.

According to tests conducted by Food Products Laboratory in Portland, Ore., the vanilla ice cream has 300 calories, 7 grams of fat and 50 grams of carbohydrates.

The final score for Weight Watchers members: 7 points. That's the same as a chocolate frosted donut at Dunkin' Donuts.

`Flabbergasted'

"I do not go to any meeting on the face of the Earth, from Palm Beach County to Key West, where this product has not been touted as the manna from heaven," said Herm Vogel, executive vice president of Weight Watchers of Greater Miami.

"When I got this Big Daddy's ice cream I'm looking for the catch. There has to be a catch."

But, like most dieters, Vogel chucked suspicion to the wind and went with the label despite his gut feeling. On Friday morning, Vogel went to his local supermarket and bought three containers.

On Friday afternoon, he learned the cold, hard facts.

"I'm flabbergasted," he said. "A person believes that when they have a label that it's going to be pretty close to what it says. If you were talking about one-third of that container, then it would bear out to be true."

In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's rules for labeling call for a standard four-ounce serving size, a small scoop, for ice cream. If Big Daddy had claimed each container had three servings instead of one, the numbers would be more accurate.

"It's a product that is very low-fat and has a lot of air in it," he said at first, explaining why the ice cream had one-third of the calories of its competitors.

Then, after consulting with the factory and others in his company and seeing the lab tests, DeConna said the label was indeed wrong. It should read three servings instead of one.

"We're going to correct the cartons just as quick as possible," he said. "We've had this product on the market a long time. It's always stated that. We just didn't realize it.

"All we can do is correct it at this point, correct it as quickly as possible," DeConna said. "We're going to let everybody know."

DeConna accepts that sales might plummet when the public learns the ice cream isn't quite the boon to dieters that it seemed.

"Whatever happens, happens," he said. "It has to be correct."

DeConna acknowledged the ice cream was not tested in a lab. Instead, the nutritional data were derived from a common practice called database labeling.

Companies calculate nutritional information based on average values for the ingredients.

Tim McCann, lab director at the Food Products Laboratory, said he wasn't surprised when he got the results. He had thought the labels were a bit overly optimistic.

"You'll see a lot of stuff that just isn't logical, especially if you put competitors side by side," he said.

Usually, errors on labels aren't that harmful, McCann said, but this one could be.

"If you're basing your lifestyle on a low-calorie diet or a low-carbohydrate diet because you're diabetic ... there's a potential for a problem," he said. "For people who really seriously use those labels for a forced diet it has a big impact.

"If you're diabetic, you're allowed so many carbohydrates."

Dream world

In recent months, as distribution of Big Daddy spread, so did the invaluable word-of-mouth advertising.

The product was first released in 1995, but until a few months ago, it was almost impossible to find outside of convenience stores.

Then, as demand from consumers grew, Publix Supermarkets began to carry it, said Publix spokeswoman Carmen Millares. "It's been popular, so we have it all the stores now," she said.

Publix has stores throughout Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama. Big Daddy also has appeared on shelves in Albertsons and Winn-Dixie stores -- quickly disappearing as ice cream-starved dieters snarfed them up.

Virginia Weight Watchers members recently boasted on the Internet that they now can buy Big Daddy near their homes.

"They're selling like crazy. Obviously, I can see why," Weight Watchers' Vogel said. "I guess we all live in a dream world when it comes to things like that."

He sounded a little sad. "The one I had last night was good," he said. From now on, he added, he'd have to settle for the memory.

Mitch Lipka can be reached at mlipka@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6653.